The moment the Shadowwood Panther materialized, the players who had just flooded into the novice village erupted into an instant uproar. A young girl standing nearby let out an involuntary gasp and stumbled back half a step.
"What's a summon doing in the novice village? Isn't that a Summoner skill?"
"Wait, none of the starter classes can summon a panther. Did the System bug out?"
Murmurs and exclamations rippled through the crowd, every eye locking onto Kairon and the Shadowwood Panther at his side.
Kairon's expression didn't shift an inch. With a slight lift of his fingertips, the Shadowwood Panther fell neatly in at his side, clearing a path through the crowd. The throng of players automatically parted for them.
Unlike his past life, where he'd spent over half an hour shoving and squeezing his way out of the novice village gates, this time he walked through with effortless calm.
He paid no mind to the chatter around him, pushed through the crowd with the panther at his heels, and walked straight out of the novice village gates.
The moment he stepped outside, he was met with a sea of people as far as the eye could see. There were quite literally more players than monsters.
More often than not, the second a level 1 Woodland Grub spawned, it was swarmed by a dozen players and hacked to pieces in an instant, not even a scrap left behind.
Every single player was experiencing a virtual game like this for the first time, and with its 100% sensory fidelity, this visceral, heart-pounding immersion made it easy to get completely swept up in it.
In his past life, he'd been one of those players scrambling for grubs, too. He'd wasted a full ten minutes here, not even managing to snag a single monster's worth of experience, and had finally been forced to head deeper into the map in frustration.
But this time around, armed with the memories of his past life, he knew better than anyone that this novice village was nothing more than the System's prequel prologue expansion.
At 1 a.m. in-game, a world-ending cataclysm would sweep across the entire starter map, and every single player would be caught up in a massive reset. Once the cataclysm passed, the players who survived would be teleported to the Twin Continent, ten thousand years in the future.
This continent was the product of a collision between the planet Caelum, their current home, and Aether, another high-tech world. The two planets had not shattered on impact. Instead, they had crushed together and merged, forming a figure-eight shape suspended in the void of space.
It was this collision that had stopped both planets' rotation entirely. The sun-facing side became the Caelum Continent, bathed in eternal daylight. The dark, far side became the Aether Continent, trapped in endless night.
Players who survived the cataclysm would be teleported to the Caelum Continent and automatically assigned to the Survivor Faction. Players who died during the cataclysm would respawn on the Aether Continent and would automatically be placed in the Slayer Faction.
Only after this prologue cataclysm had passed would players who created new characters later be able to choose their faction freely.
This had led countless players to sign a joint petition protesting the Eldrath Corporation's forced faction assignment, threatening to quit the game en masse if they didn't get an explanation.
But the official response was simple and unapologetically domineering. This is the only 100% neural interface full-dive holographic MMORPG in the world, and there will never be a second. Stay or leave, the choice is yours.
Before he'd entered the game, the noble old man in the crisp black suit with the blood-red rose in his breast pocket had told him that the apocalyptic cataclysm in the game would descend upon the real world in five years.
Even now, Kairon still had his doubts. He had truly been reborn, but was it the power of Eldrath that had reversed time for him? Or had he simply woken up at that exact moment by some stroke of chance?
He pushed his way through the crowded level 1 and level 2 grinding zones, and by the time he reached the spawn area for the level 3 Wild Boars, there were far fewer players around.
He'd lost a little time to the conversation before the game had launched, and he was surprised to see players had already found their way to the level 3 zone. Kairon frowned slightly, but he didn't break his stride, pressing on deeper into the map.
One thought burned in his mind. No one could find that spot before he did.
In his past life, Kairon had only stumbled out this way because he couldn't get a single kill at the novice village gates. Then the cataclysm had hit, and he'd accidentally fallen into a hollow tree trunk.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
That fall had triggered a secret encounter quest, let him accidentally escape the cataclysm's annihilation. In the end, he'd been teleported to the Caelum Continent and placed in the Survivor Faction.
It wasn't long before he reached the spawn area for the level 5 Wild Wolves. Every monster here was an aggressive red-name mob, a death zone for level 1 new players where even a single hit meant certain death.
The last time he'd made it this far, the cataclysm had already begun, and the System had forcibly despawned every monster on the map.
But now, there was still a full twenty minutes until the cataclysm hit. He couldn't just wait around for the monsters to despawn before he went in. If another player found that hollow tree at that time, he would have already lost the first step of his rebirth.
The hollow tree was barely fifteen meters away, but three patrolling Wild Wolves were standing directly between him and the entrance.
He stared at the 40 health points on his stat panel and took a deep breath.
The next second, he twitched his fingertips and issued a command to the Shadowwood Panther at his side.
The panther instantly tensed and coiled, then shot forward as an arrow was loosed from a bow. It let out a threatening snarl at the leftmost wolf, its claws raking a shallow gash across the wolf's flank.
-2.
A pitifully small damage number floated up, but it instantly pulled full aggro from all three wolves. They spun around with snarls and lunged straight for the panther.
Now! Kairon seized the split-second window, pushed off with his legs, and sprinted for the hollow tree as fast as he could.
Using its superior agility to its advantage, the panther led the three wolves in a wide half-circle. The moment Kairon dove into the hollow tree, the panther dissolved into a faint glow of nature energy and returned to his body.
The three wolves lunged at thin air, snarling furiously at the entrance to the hollow tree, but their bulk kept them from squeezing inside.
At the bottom of the hollow tree, Kairon leaned against the rough inner wall and caught his breath, unable to hold back a low cough. He'd slipped and fallen during his dead sprint, and even with the faint damage reduction from his World Tree Sapling legacy, he'd still lost a third of his health.
Even though World of Eldrath only simulated 80% of real-world pain, the dull thud of hitting the loose rocks had left him gasping for several long seconds before he could push himself to his feet.
Just then, the crisp chime of a System announcement rang in his ears.
Ding! You have discovered the final resting place of Master Craftsman Ryan. You have triggered the unique secret encounter quest: The Unclaimed Wishing Box. Accept?
"Accept." He'd come here for this very quest, and he didn't hesitate for a heartbeat.
The quest panel unfolded before him at once.
...
[Quest Name: The Unclaimed Wishing Box]
[Quest Description: Travel to the depths of the cave and collect the relics of Master Craftsman Ryan]
[Quest Rewards: +600 Experience Points, Wishing Box ×1]
...
He'd barely finished reading the quest details when a startled scream came from directly above his head.
Loose rocks and dirt showered down as a stocky player plummeted straight through the opening, slamming into the exact spot where Kairon had been standing just seconds before.
Kairon darted out of the way with lightning-fast reflexes, his brow furrowing instantly. That was way too close. Someone had made it out here already? Luckily, the secret encounter quest was unique. He'd already triggered it, so no one else could pick it up, even if they found the spot.
A cold glint flashed in Kairon's eyes, and he summoned the Shadowwood Panther in an instant.
The panther materialized silently behind the stocky player, its sharp claws raking deep into the back of his neck.
-3...
A tiny damage number floated up above the player sprawled on the ground, the hit wiping out the last of his health in an instant. His body dissolved into a flash of white light and vanished from the hollow tree.
Ding! You have voluntarily killed player Unluc. Infamy +1.
Kairon stared at the System notification. Sorry, but you really drew the short straw here. If you hadn't run into me, fresh off my rebirth, that luck would've been all yours.
He bent down to pick up the Minor Health Potion the player had dropped on death, then turned and headed deeper into the cave.
Two minutes later, he walked back out of the cave depths, leaned against the wall, and stared at the Wishing Box resting in his inventory, a flicker of unbridled excitement flashing in his eyes.
...
[Wishing Box]
[Rarity: God-Tier]
[Description: A supreme treasure forged with the life's work of Master Craftsman Ryan's daughter, who sacrificed her own flesh and blood to the forge. It holds the unparalleled power of master forging.]
[Effects:
1. When enhancing any piece of equipment, grants an additional 50% fixed success rate on top of the base success chance.
2. Reduces the gold cost of equipment enhancement by 100%.
3. If enhancement fails, the equipment will not be destroyed, and its enhancement level will not drop.
4. After 3 consecutive failed enhancements, the next enhancement is guaranteed to succeed.
5. No limit on the number of uses.]
[Special Restrictions: Guaranteed to drop on death. Cannot be traded. Cannot be stored in the warehouse. Cannot be destroyed.]
...
Anyone who's ever played an MMO knows that gear enhancement is the most soul-crushing, wallet-draining system in the game.
In World of Eldrath, equipment can be enhanced up to +30. Every 10 enhancement levels grants a random, powerful exclusive attribute to the gear. But no matter how high your enhancement level is, a single failure will reset it all the way back to zero.
Some players lost everything trying to push a legendary piece of gear to +30, and others who'd maxed out an enhancement in one smooth run with just 30 enhancement stones.
This Wishing Box eliminated every single risk of enhancement. It was nothing short of a one-of-a-kind treasure, unmatched across the entire server.
He glanced up at the in-game time on his panel. There were fewer than three minutes left until the System issued the cataclysm warning.
According to the game's rules, the only way to survive the cataclysm's annihilation was to stay inside the novice village, or in one of the special shelters marked on the map.
But he didn't need to go out. The last time around, he'd weathered the entire cataclysm safe and sound right here in this hollow tree, and had ultimately been teleported to the Caelum Continent as a survivor.
He leaned back against the wall, opened the game's online AFK function, confirmed that the AFK status would not be marked as offline, then reached up and pulled off his full-dive headset.
He knew full well that countless players had tried to game the system by logging off to avoid the cataclysm, only to be automatically assigned to the dark Aether Continent and the Slayer Faction the moment they logged back on. He would never make such a stupid, rookie mistake.
